About 30 years ago, I was a business manager at Longtan Miniature Park. One day, a commotion arose within the park; it turned out that the retired Director Sun had been spotted by members of the public.
I thought to myself, “My colleagues at the ticket counter know movie stars, but they don’t recognize Director Sun?!”
Feeling ashamed, I pulled the chairman into the park to greet the director.
The director couldn’t refuse the chairman’s hospitality and went into the VIP room, but insisted on not accepting the lunch invitation, saying he had brought his own simple meal.
I leaned close to the director and whispered, “Director, we didn’t notice you were here. If you continue to refuse to eat here, all of us staff will be very upset today.”
The dean accepted the meal, but requested that the bodyguards use the simple food they brought for lunch, emphasizing that nothing should be wasted (the bodyguards were all high-ranking police officers who volunteered to follow the dean and declined the set meals I arranged, only accepting hot soup and drinks).
After the meal, the dean insisted on paying, but the chairman refused. In the end, the payment was given as tips to all the service staff that day, resolving the matter satisfactorily.
However, the most touching moment came later: taking a commemorative photo!
The dean had suffered a stroke and was in a wheelchair. Before the photo was taken, he said, “Everyone is standing; it would be impolite for me to sit. Please give me a few minutes.”
We watched as the dean, leaning on his cane, slowly, bit by bit, struggled to stand up from his wheelchair. Standing beside him, I saw beads of sweat trickling from his temples, and my eyes welled up with tears.
Before getting into the car, I asked the bodyguards, “Why didn’t you inform the Longtan branch beforehand?”
The bodyguard reported that he would be scolded by the dean. Every time they went anywhere, the dean would make them buy tickets first before pushing him inside for the tour.
The philosopher is gone, but the example remains.
Looking at the chaotic political arena today, which politician isn’t a billionaire? Which politician runs for office not to collect the 30 NT dollar tax revenue per vote? Which politician doesn’t run for office just to win? None of them are working to improve the people’s well-being; they are all working for party interests, for personal positions, even resorting to manipulating the media to fabricate stories. As long as they are elected, everything can be changed. What is changed is that the people follow politicians in committing fraud, but the abyss of economic hardship remains unresolved.
A short story about Dean Sun Yun-hsuan: Dean Sun Yun-hsuan’s wife who couldn’t produce proof of funds